Welcome!

Hello.

Happy New Year.

I hope you’re looking forward to 2018 as much as I am. I’m ecstatic to be saying goodbye to 2017.

I’d like to welcome you to ‘A Work in Progress…’ my newly revamped blog. I’ve been working on ‘A Work in Progress…’ for the better part of the back half of 2017. I’ve been jotting down ideas, brainstorming, designing, and everything else that comes with running a personal blog in the past six months, readying it for this entrance into the world. It’s been a bit of work, but I’ve enjoyed it for the most part.

The title, ‘A Work in Progress’ actually comes from Roxane Gay and an interview that she gave that was featured on the Rookie podcast in 2017. The title immediately struck me from the moment she uttered those words. They attached themselves to me. Constantly nudging me, emerging at the most inconvenient moments. They dug their fingers into my skin, my cells, my brain, unwilling to let me go.

A work in progress.

A Work in Progress.

a work in progress.

A work in progress?

a work in progress

a work in progress…

A Work in Progress…

I’m a work in progress. I’ll constantly be a work in progress, reading, writing, travelling, exploring, loving, and learning about the world and me. And this blog is going to document that progress.

I turned 25 in 2017, an age that marked a milestone for me. I actually wrote a blog post about turning 25 and what it meant to me (link).

2017, despite all its madness, depressive and terrifying moments, this was really the year where I started to put myself first. Which, honestly, has never been the easiest thing for me to do, but it is something I’m trying to work at and will continue with into 2018. It’s also the year where I started to rely on others more, letting others, which has been a difficult task, to say the least. But I am trying.

I came to realize in 2017 that life is never what you expect it to be. It’ll always be in motion, always changing, throwing curves, or in my case a car accident, at you, and you take what you want from it, you survive, you take care of yourself and do what you want to do and not to let others stop you from doing it, and not being afraid to fail. Life is hard, it’s going to be painful, and terrifying, and there will be moments that you feel like your drowning and unable to surface, but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, always. Sometimes it takes a while to reach it, but you can reach it and sometimes you require help to reach it and that’s okay.

I have big plans for 2018. They include educating myself more, reading more, travelling more, being more proactive, and learning about and taking care of myself more. They also included growing and expanding this blog even more. And a few other things like giving fewer fucks, being more comfortable in my own body, and finally getting that tattoo I’ve been wanting to get since forever.

One of those plans for 2018 is starting my CiviilyReadsInstagram account. This is where I will be posting one photo of the books I’m reading and my thoughts and feelings about that book and my day, every single day of 2018. All 365 days of 2018. It’s a challenge that I’m setting for myself as a way to not only document what I’m reading for the entire year, but also to share and talk to other people about books and stories and how and why they are important to us as human beings, and how important inclusion, diversity and representation are in these books and stories to populate our pop culture and consciousness. It’s also serving my desire to get more creative and explorative with digital media in 2018. If you would like to follow along and join me on this challenge # your own Instagram posts with #CiviilyReads365.

My mission statement for 2018 comes from Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not to merely survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

I have so much more to learn and grow as a woman of colour, as a human being, and as plain old me. I hope that you’ll enjoy taking this journey with me over the course of the next year.